Exam 312-49v10 topic 1 question 147 discussion

Actual exam question from ECCouncil's 312-49v10

Question #: 147
Topic #: 1

You are the network administrator for a small bank in Dallas, Texas. To ensure network security, you enact a security policy that requires all users to have 14 character passwords. After giving your users 2 weeks notice, you change the Group Policy to force 14 character passwords. A week later you dump the SAM database from the standalone server and run a password-cracking tool against it. Over 99% of the passwords are broken within an hour. Why were these passwords cracked so Quickly?

A. Passwords of 14 characters or less are broken up into two 7-character hashes
B. A password Group Policy change takes at least 3 weeks to completely replicate throughout a network
C. Networks using Active Directory never use SAM databases so the SAM database pulled was empty
D. The passwords that were cracked are local accounts on the Domain Controller

Show Suggested Answer

Suggested Answer: A 🗳️

by Jashan_lefty at June 10, 2024, 3:50 a.m.

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044f354

6 months ago

Selected Answer: A

A. Passwords of 14 characters or less are broken up into two 7-character hashes: Correct Windows' LAN Manager (LM) hashing splits passwords into two 7-character blocks, making them easier to crack with brute force or rainbow table attacks.

upvoted 3 times

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Rodine

7 months ago

Correct Answer: A. Passwords of 14 characters or less are broken up into two 7-character hashes Explanation: On Windows systems, passwords of 14 characters or less are split into two separate 7-character hashes when stored using the LAN Manager (LM) hash algorithm, which is an outdated and less secure hashing method. Here’s why this matters:

upvoted 4 times

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Toni222

10 months, 3 weeks ago

Selected Answer: A

The most plausible reason the passwords were cracked so quickly is related to the way Windows stores and handles passwords, particularly with older hashing methods like LAN Manager (LM) hashes. LM hashes are known to split passwords into two 7-character chunks and hash them separately, which makes them much easier to crack than a single 14-character hash

upvoted 4 times

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Dumas

11 months, 3 weeks ago

A is the correct answer. No domain controller in this question. Domain Controllers don't keep passwords in the SAM file. This is all about LM an NTLM passwords. The weakness is called 7 & 7.

upvoted 4 times

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Jashan_lefty

12 months ago

Selected Answer: D

The passwords were cracked quickly because they were local accounts on the Domain Controller, which typically have weaker security measures compared to domain accounts.

upvoted 1 times

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